1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle periphery monitoring device configured to monitor the periphery of a vehicle through the usage of a captured image acquired by an imaging device mounted in the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, there has been known an art which extracts an image region of an object from a captured image, and reports to the driver a determination that the classification of the object is an animal other than a human being when a first object region with a ratio of dimensions in different directions within a predefined range and a plurality of second object regions which are located below the first object region and have smaller surface area than the first object region are contained in the extracted image region of the object (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2007-310705).
However, the object extracted from the captured image acquired by the imaging device mounted in the vehicle is not limited to a human being or an animal but also includes an artificial structure such as another vehicle or the like. Thus, when the plurality of second object regions below the first object region are contained in the extracted image region of the object, the classification of the object is determined to be an animal other than a human being; however, it is possible that the artificial structure such as another vehicle or the like is also included into the classification. Thereby, when the artificial structure such as another vehicle or the like is recognized by the self vehicle as an animal other than a human being, the presence thereof would be reported to the driver in vain. In addition, an animal to be determined by the self vehicle as an animal other than a human being is especially a large animal such as a deer or the like with four legs (designated quadruped animal).